LINK© Gifting Guide
A great gift is one that is truly joyfully received, and it is often thoughtful and relevant to the recipient. A lousy gift is the opposite. It may have been thought through (or not) but somehow fails to enthral the receiver.
As well as bringing joy and calm into lives, at Peace Lily, we are also about reducing waste: of your money, resources, time - especially in the cause of gathering up gifts that people won’t really use or enjoy. So less of those weird and wacky outlandish gift ideas that are totally unusable, that are ridiculously ostentatious or likely to be heading to landfill!
Time for some radical thinking ... In our opinion, gift giving should focus on the person receiving the gift, not on the gift itself or on you as the sender (ouch)!
Here are our top tips for finding the perfect gift for the special people in your life so you get in and stay in their good books. Think P-LINK©!
POSITIVE ATTITUDE
Firstly, great gifting requires genuine effort on your part to get results. If you detest looking for gifts, try to spend as little time as possible choosing them, or fob your gift giving on other people, it shows. A great gift, once more, should be appreciated and welcomed by the receiver. It should appear thoughtful, carefully considered and chosen specifically for the recipient.
Secondly, to achieve gifting awesomeness, you will need your skills of observation and must pay close attention to your gift recipient. Ideally, you need to know them! And, you'll need our top notch principles to help you now and with your future gifting, not a long list of the weird and wonderful to choose from. You’re an adult, you’ve got this.
OUR LINK GIFTING PRINCIPLES
With your observation goggles on, all you need are our four principles - with the acronym L I N K - to take your gifting to a higher level.
#1. L = LOVE LANGUAGE
The whole point of gifting is about relationships, right? So start with how your potential recipient likes to be shown appreciation and loved.
According to Gary Chapman, there are five love languages: #1: Words of Affirmation. #2: Physical Touch. #3: Receiving Gifts. #4: Quality Time. #5: Acts of Service.
There’s no need for a full psychometric analysis but in your interactions, you may notice your recipient leaning towards some more than others. People tend to naturally give love in the way that they prefer.
For instance, is your recipient always full of compliments to others? Words of affirmation could be their thing. This gift receiver will be enthralled with positive reinforcement via compliments or praise that shines light on something they did or who they are as a person. Say the beautiful words, text, wax lyrical in song or write it to them in a carefully selected card, with your own personalised message.
#2. I = INTERESTS AND IN-JOKES
What is your gift recipient really into, particularly in their free time? How do they relax in downtime? What hobbies have they got? What topics or even colours excite them? Do they have a favourite snack, book or indulgence? Do you share an in-joke with your recipient that could be perfect for a tongue-in cheek gift?
Your gift recipient may relax with a good book, listening to music, cooking up a storm, manicures, mini-spa treatments, writing, painting, movies, running, hiking, cycling, golfing, crafting, fishing – tune into these, and select relevant gifts.
A writer who still does this the old fashioned way on paper may appreciate a unique and carefully selected pen to get their creative juices running free. For an artist in their free time, you could get some art supplies (if they don’t already have a roomful!).
Think about the favourite snacks or treats of your gift recipient. If it’s a chocoholic, take them to chocolate heaven with a dizzying selection of high quality organic chocolates – throw in some old favourites and new emerging ones. Likes things hot, take a similar approach and send them to blow your taste bud out nirvana with new and exciting sauces and spiced gifts.
Alternatively, can you offer something like babysitting or other chores and responsibilities that helps them find more time for their hobby?
Basically, think of a gift that gives them either more time or useful resources to relax in their favourite way.
#3. N = NEEDS
We are either in need of money or time. However some people are short on both. There is also the possibility that your recipient may be full on money and time! Lucky them ...
For the recipient short on time, it’s prudent to avoid gifts they have to take time out to figure how to spend it (e.g. gift cards), or that are overly complicated that costs them time! If you must, consider a concierge service like ours to step in to save valuable time and resources.
For those short on money, and where you would like to give them the option to choose whatever food gifts, tea and coffee gifts, spa and pamper gift set or accessories and gadgets, gift cards could be the answer.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, though imperfect, could be helpful for insights into what your gift receiver may require. Our needs as humans vary from the basics of food and shelter to our growth needs, psychological needs like love and belonging, for self-fulfilment and spiritual needs.
Depending on their perceived psychological needs, can you do something together? Do they just want to spend time together or need someone to spend time with? This is a huge bonus for those rich on time and who have a love language of quality time, especially if you then combine this with a couple of their interests (order a large snack box, select a movie from their favourite genre and sit down together for movie night or get set up for afternoon tea with one of our gift hampers!). Alternatively. just do something you’ve both talked about or hoped to do for ages.
Sometimes the best thing we can give those around us is our time.
The flip side is that there are some of your potential gift recipients who could do with some ‘distance’ time – they need some alone time and would value if you took their kids away for the week (their love language could be act of service and this could endear you to them forever)!
The bottomline is it is helpful to know a little about what's going on in their lives (moved house, new baby?), not in a nosey way, but in one that you can show care and appreciation ... and get one step closer to that perfect gift for them.
#4. K = KINDNESS
'Kind' here captures the generous and genuine attempt to show care with your gifting as well as being supportive of wider impact-making causes in society and to the environment.
Does your gift recipient have a favourite charity or kind cause you could support? Does the gift you are choosing have a positive effect on wellbeing, the environment and society? Is your gifting ethical and sustainable? What good is your gifting doing to the recipient and beyond? For instance, here at Peace Lily Gifts, our curated accessories and gadget gifts reflect our care for nature and are made from natural materials including cufflinks handcrafted from rescued oak.
If you go through all the principles above, and you conclude that your proposed recipient already has more than enough stuff, and truly don’t want or need for anything, you could support their favourite charity by making a donation on their behalf.
Alternatively, if you go through all of the above and you arrive at your great gift idea, be sure to select gift(s) that are ‘good’ – that is good for the environment, society, are ethical and sustainable. For even more kudos, choose gifts they like that benefit causes your gift recipients care about – this could be fairer wages, buying local, supporting small businesses, artisans, first responders, the environment and lots more!
CONNECT, CONNECT, CONNECT
If your skills of observations are so not up to scratch and you’re still clueless and seriously at risk of another gift ending up in disappointment or the landfill… ask your potential recipient(s) directly. They’d probably be glad you did. Alternatively, contact us and we are always happy to help.
The important point in selecting the perfect gift is to find something truly relevant so you have to pay close attention, and learn more about the person. Learning more is about the LINK© - how the person likes to be appreciated and loved, their interests and tastes, their needs and finally causes they are passionate about.
As our acronym suggests, gifting is about connections and relationships. Gifts can be reflections of the giver, receiver and their relationship. We give to establish them, confirm or reaffirm connections.
Happy smarter and hassle-free gifting!
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